Pit Bulls Blamed In Vicious Attack

NEWPORT NEWS — The state dangerous dog registry lists two dogs with a record of doing harm in Newport News: a yellow lab named Bear and a German shepherd named Randy.

But Michael Landon would like to see that list double. Landon says two pit bulls jumped a fence on Friday and viciously attacked his 8-year-old beagle, Snoopy.

Snoopy had to be euthanized, but the two pit bulls were returned to their owners.

At the time, animal control officers did not know they had mauled another dog, said Bill Wise, superintendent of Newport News Animal Services. They just knew that the pit bulls were loose.

Now the two pit bulls, Angel and Zeus, could join Randy and Bear on the dangerous dog registry.

Landon returned to his McKinley Drive home in Denbigh on Friday to find the backyard spattered with blood and his beagle torn to shreds. "What I saw back there I will never, ever forget," he said.

Snoopy was alive, but barely. A veterinarian euthanized the family pet that evening.

Landon assumed his other dog, a 3-year-old German shepherd, was responsible. He planned to have that dog put down the next morning. But before he did, a neighbor told Landon he had seen the two pit bulls jump into the backyard.

Other neighbors reported seeing the pit bulls roaming the block that afternoon, covered in blood.

"Everybody is sort of baffled about the fact that these dogs are still in the neighborhood," Landon said. "I'm bothered by the fact that dogs that were picked up with blood on them were let go."

"I won't let my dogs outside now," said Heather Weiss, who lives about a block from Landon and called animal control after she saw the dogs running loose Friday.

Animal control officers are collecting witness testimony to take before a magistrate, Wise said. If there's enough evidence that the pit bulls killed the beagle, the case will go to a district court hearing to determine whether to label the pit bulls dangerous dogs. That ruling would mean the owners have to follow a strict series of requirements, including registering the dogs and taking out a $100,000 insurance policy on them.

Such rulings are rare in Newport News, Wise said.

If her pit bulls did kill the beagle, their owner, Eva Cruz, says she won't keep them around long enough to put them on the registry.

Cruz has owned 4-year-old Angel and 5-year-old Zeus since they were puppies. She's never had trouble with them - they even play with her poodle, she said.

"My son and I are crying now, thinking that we might have to get rid of them," she said.

She's still not sure she believes her pit bulls are responsible. She called animal control officers when the dogs escaped from her fenced yard Friday. When they came back, Angel was covered in what she thought was mud, but now acknowledges could have been blood.

"I can't say if they did or they didn't. I don't know," she said. "I just know I feel for (the beagle's owner). I can't replace their dog, and I know how it is, because they're part of your family."

She's prepared to lose her pit bulls instead of keeping them under the state restrictions.

"I told my son, I wouldn't do that for the simple reason that I wouldn't trust them. I have a 2-month-old baby in the house, and I have my poodle," she said. "I wouldn't keep them."

DANGEROUS DOGS

The state has two classifications for dogs that do harm.

Both involve court rulings:

* Dangerous dogs have bitten, attacked or injured a person, or seriously injured or killed a companion animal, such as a dog or cat.

* Vicious dogs have seriously injured or killed a person.

A vicious dog ruling typically requires that the animal be euthanized.

Dangerous dogs can be kept if a person abides by a series of requirements, including building an enclosure to house the animal, registering the dog every year, muzzling it if it goes outside, and taking out a $100,000 liability insurance policy. Dangerous dogs are also listed on a state registry at www.virginia.gov/vdacs_dd/public/cgi-bin/public.cgi.